The Union Seminary Review Volume 30 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE YOUNG MINISTER IN HIS STUDY. III. The Literary Style of the Sermon- By The Rev. Andrew W. Blackwood, D. D., Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, S. C. The power of a sermon depends somewhat largely upon its literary style. Literary style, as the term is here employed, has no kinship with so-called fine writing and pulpit oratory, in which form it constantly calls attention to itself and away from the message. True literary style is only a means to an end higher by far than itself, and it approaches perfection only as it presents the truth in such a clear, attractive and powerful fashion that all who hear must believe and obey. Such a literary style has done much to make President Wilson the world's foremost preacher of righteousness, for with the change of a single word Tennyson's verses might well have been written about him: "Our greatest yet with least pretense, Great in council and great in war, Foremost statesman of his time, Rich in saving common sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime." Clearness. The first essential in the style of a sermon is clearness. "Clearness," in the words of Professor Wendell, "is the distinguishing quality of a style which cannot be misunderstood." This authority on English composition insists that a style which can be understood only by close attention and laborious effort has no place in the habits of a public speaker, and that he oughtever to make his meaning clear, not only to the exceptional scholar but to the average man. The speaker whose audience includes persons of all ages must judge his style by its appeal to the understanding of the children. Such clearness in the pulpit is essential to the very life of Protestantism, which insists that in order to be effectual the Word must be un...